They were newlyweds united in part by a love for the outdoors, and just days after their July 11 wedding at the Denver Botanic Gardens, the couple went for a hike on Mount Yale.

Kathleen Bartlett and Ryan Pocius were just above tree line Friday afternoon when, in a flash, everything changed.

Bartlett, 31, was killed and Pocius, 32, injured when they were struck by lightning. Less than a week after his wedding, Pocius is suddenly a widower.

They were at 12,400 feet when the strike happened at about 1:15 p.m., but because their location was outside cell service, witnesses had to hike to get a signal and couldn’t place a 911 call until 2:05 p.m., according to Chaffee County authorities. Emergency crews were dispatched but did not reach the couple until between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Then, Flight for Life Helicopters were delayed by weather.

Pocius was finally evacuated on a helicopter around 5:45 p.m.

His wife was pronounced dead on the mountain. It appears that Bartlett died instantly, Randy Amettis of the Chaffee County Coroner’s Office said.

Two other hikers, who were not with Bartlett and Pocius, were also hit by the lightning strike but had only minor injuries. They were able to “self-evacuate,” according to Undersheriff Derek Bos.

Bartlett and Pocius met at a bar where she worked part time, and the chemistry was instant, she wrote in a post on their wedding website.

“We ended up having more things in common than we first thought, including a shared appreciation for kids’ movies, yoga, sarcasm and love for the outdoors,” Bartlett wrote on the couple’s page on theknot.com. “It became apparent very quickly that we had both found ‘our person.’ Six months after we started dating seriously, we found ourselves engaged and the rest is history!”

Bartlett’s profile picture on Facebook, last updated Wednesday, shows her wearing her wedding dress holding a bouquet of flowers as Pocius, eyes closed, kisses her on the cheek. Bartlett is smiling broadly, her eyes looking to the sky.

Kathleen Bartlett, killed Friday in Chaffee County, is the first lightning fatality in Colorado in 2015 and the 21st since 2005, based on figures kept by the National Weather Service:

2014: A man and a woman on consecutive July days at Rocky Mountain National Park in Larimer County

2013: Two farmworkers in August in Larimer County

2012: None

2011: A man in August in Custer County

2010: A man in June in Chaffee County

2009: A man in June in Weld County

2008: Four were killed in July: two graduate students in Larimer County, a sheepherder in Mineral County and a teenager in Custer County

2007: A man was killed while jogging in July in Jefferson County; another person was killed in September in El Paso County

2006: Six total were killed: a man in May in Park County; three people in separate incidents in June, two men in Adams County and one man in Jackson County; a teenager in July in Teller County; and a man in September in Montrose County

Thunderstorms that originated in eastern Utah and along the Western Slope formed a squall line that produced damaging winds and power outages across the state Saturday afternoon, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Hanson.